Truck & Bus Forum - Hilifta's latest travels.

I have just started to upload photos tonight from our latest trip.
We managed to get a very good late (IE cheap) booking on a 12 day cruise on the Diamond Princess, for 1100NZD (90bucks a day), then 4 days before sailing were upgraded to a deluxe balcony!!!.
Bring it on!.
Ports of call were Tauranga (Mt.Manganui), Akaroa, Dunedin, Fjordland, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney, then fly home on Emirates A380.
We had not been to Dunedin or Fjordland before so they were the main attraction, (Other than spending time with our son and DIL in Sydney afterwards.)
So as for truck photos, well Tauranga was only 2hrs down the road from home so there's no touristic attraction there for us, Mrs.H spent the day with friends and I spent the day “wandering”. By days end I had walked 11k’s, was badly sunburnt, had very sore feet and had an extreme case of crutchrash. Next day, at sea Mrs.H was very unsympathetic when I couldn’t walk properly she couldn’t stop laughing and asked me if I had “A murphy in my surfies”
But believe me it was worth it, around 400 photos. Trucks everywhere, log trucks for Africa, and much to my surprise quite a few older trucks like Fodens and ERF’s.
Ripper mate!.
A friend had told me of the good spots, and they were very good, I just didn’t realise how far away they were!!
Akaroa, this a very small but very beautiful little town, pop about 750. It is built on the edge of an old volcanic caldera so there is plenty of water for big cruise ships. Since the earthquake the big cruise ships can’t berth at Lyttelton as the wharf (the container wharf), has broken in two and the harbour floor has risen a metre.
So lots of buses have to travel to Akaroa to meet the ships. We had been there before so I got ashore early and shot the buses before they left and Mrs.H wandered ashore later and we just had a cup of coffee and took in the scenery. Great little spot. No trucks at all.
Dunedin was new to us, but we booked on the Taieri Gorge Railway. If you ever go to Dunedin it is worth every penny. Absolutely stunning trip with spectacular scenery. Princess offered this tour at 199USD (about 250NZD), I went to their website and booked direct, 97NZD, $84 with a seniors card! Quite a saving.
I managed to get few trucks on our return.
Unfortunately Fjordland was called off because of the rough seas, so it was straight to Hobart, but we did get a doozy of a storm the day before we arrived, 92knots of wind, 9-10metre seas and the ship was hove to for hours. Great, we loved it, we don’t get seasick. Shut the yanks up though, they were all crying for Ruth. Result was though we didn’t get into Hobart till 1pm But we didn’t mind been there before, so we just had a great trip in the Red decker bus, another coffee and Mrs.H wandered back to the ship whilst I got the camera out.
Locations were limited because of the time but I did get some interesting rigs, not the least of which was the live fish truck. They also have some real live Dennis buses!!
They’ll come up shortly.
Then it was Melbourne, Mrs.hilifta’s hometown. She went off with the rellies and after a quick “Gidday” I shot thru in the other direction. (I’ve never understood Aussie Rules “footy”, so I’ve always been a bit of an outsider, not to be trusted.)
I was very lucky to make contact with a guy I have met on Flikr, Zed Fitzhome. He is a Melbourne truckie and he very kindly provided the wheels and the local knowledge for truck shots. He was a gem and I got some great shots. Plus the weather was spot on.
Then to Sydney. As expected I couldn’t do much there but did get some photos during our compulsory sightseeing trips.
Did pick up a couple of good diecast models at Hobbyco though!!
Can’t complain though, got 980 truck shots, 260 aircraft at Sydney airport and 500 or so scenery type shots.
Shall upload these over the next few weeks.

Mike